Anouk Foundation

IF WALLS COULD HEAL..? – VENICE, 9 NOVEMBER 2026

We are delighted to share that Anouk Foundation will be part of “If Walls Could Heal..?” in Venice on 9 November, presented by the European Cultural Centre Italy as part of Personal Structures – Confluences. ✨

The event explores the intersection of art, healthcare and research around a question at the heart of our work: how can art transform hospital environments and contribute to wellbeing and care?

Following a visit to artworks related to healing at Palazzo Mora, a roundtable on murals and wellbeing will bring together Marcello Mortillaro, Guillaume Ozon, Virginie Pringuet, Dr. Ida Salvo and Vanessa von Richter, connecting perspectives from research, healthcare and artistic practice.

The discussion will explore how art can become a meaningful part of healthcare environments, drawing on artistic experience, scientific research and the knowledge of those working in care. For Anouk Foundation, this exchange is especially valuable as we continue to learn, develop our approach and advocate for the importance of thoughtfully created environments in healthcare.

We are especially proud to see Anouk Foundation represented by our Director Vanessa von Richter and Anouk Foundation artist Guillaume Ozon, contributing their experience from more than two decades of creating therapeutic murals in healthcare environments. 🌿

📅 9 November 2026
📍 Palazzo Mora & Palazzo Michiel, Venice
🕒 From 3 pm

If you are in Venice, we warmly invite you to join us and be part of the conversation. Welook forward to seeing you there! 💛

European Cultural Centre Italy Guillaume Ozon Marcello Mortillaro Anouk Foundation

📘 Our 2025 Annual Report is now available!

2025 marked an important milestone for the Anouk Foundation: a scientific study conducted by the University of Geneva’s CISA confirmed the positive effects of our murals on the well-being of patients and healthcare teams.

🙌 Discover the findings, the 14 projects completed across Switzerland and Europe, as well as the development of our Art4Impact programme.

Thank you to our donors, partners, artists and friends for their invaluable support in making this work possible. 🩵

🔗 Read the full report through the link in our bio

Anouk Foundation #2025

A little creativity can go a long way 💛

Together with Johnson&Johnson Switzerland, we spent another wonderful Care Community Day creating playful paper games for children at Triemli Hospital in Zurich.

Puzzles, drawing activities, connect-the-dots and lots of new ideas all designed to bring moments of distraction, play and creativity during a hospital stay.

Thank you to everyone who brought their time, energy and imagination to the table, and to Johnson&Johnson Switzerland for your trust and support over so many years. 💛

🌍 World Alzheimer’s Day | September 21 🧠

The environments we live in can have a profound impact on how we feel, especially for people living with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. When memory and orientation become more difficult, familiar and recognisable surroundings can bring comfort and reassurance to everyday life.

At Anouk Foundation, we create each project around the people who will live with the artwork every day. At Résidence Les Hirondelles in Clarens-sur-Montreux, Switzerland, this meant thinking carefully about how art could support residents in navigating and connecting with their surroundings.

Completed in November 2025, the project had a strong focus on wayfinding. Each resident’s room was given its own painted image, creating a distinct visual landmark that can offer another point of reference beyond room numbers and similar-looking corridors.

But familiarity was just as important. Our artists transformed the white walls through four themes - forest, lake, countryside and mountain - using local Swiss landscapes and imagery chosen to feel recognisable to the people living there. The aim was to bring something of the familiar outside world indoors: places and elements that can evoke recognition, memories and a sense of home.

On World Alzheimer’s Day, this project is a reminder of how much the spaces around us matter and how thoughtfully created art can become part of the care and support those spaces provide. 💛

Sikkens Center

🇮🇹/🇬🇧
Sai ancora sognare ad occhi aperti?
I piccoli pazienti dell’ ce lo insegnano ogni giorno e ci hanno ispirato per realizzare questo progetto.
Ti sveliamo in anteprima lo splendido lavoro che sta facendo per decorare il .
-
Can you still daydream?
The young patients at Ospedale Buzzi teach us this every day and have inspired us to carry out this project.
Here’s a sneak peek at the wonderful work Anouk Foundation is doing to decorate the Nuovo Grande Buzzi.

📍 EHPAD Les Monts Argentés, Megève, France

Quinze ans plus t**d, ces fresques font toujours partie du quotidien. 🙌

En 2011 et 2012, la Fondation Anouk a réalisé un projet de fresques à grande échelle à l’EHPAD Les Monts Argentés à Megève, en France. Nous avons récemment repris contact avec l’institution afin de comprendre comment les fresques avaient évolué au fil du temps et quel impact à long terme elles continuaient d’avoir sur les résidents et le personnel.

La réponse a été à la fois simple et profondément émouvante : les fresques sont toujours là, et elles continuent de faire exactement ce pour quoi elles ont été créées.

Au fil des années, elles sont naturellement devenues partie intégrante du quotidien, contribuant à créer une atmosphère plus calme, chaleureuse et rassurante pour les résidents, les visiteurs et le personnel. L’institution souligne également qu’elles aident à l’orientation dans l’espace et participent à la réduction de l’anxiété ainsi qu’à une amélioration du bien-être général.

Ce qui nous a le plus touchés, c’est qu’après toutes ces années, leur impact reste tangible non seulement pour les résidents, mais aussi pour le personnel : davantage de confort, un lien émotionnel renforcé avec l’environnement et une expérience quotidienne plus positive au sein de l’institution.

« Ces univers fermés deviennent accueillants et familiers. Les visites aux patients sont plus fréquentes et l’ambiance devient plus chaleureuse. »

- Raymonde Lavigne, directrice de l’EHPAD Les Monts Argentés, Megève, France

Des projets comme celui-ci nous rappellent que l’art dans les lieux de soins peut avoir un impact humain et émotionnel durable, bien au-delà du moment de leur création.

Un immense merci à Sikkens et à Carigest S.A. pour leur soutien à ce projet.

Anouk Foundation Sikkens Center

What happens when therapeutic art meets the next generation of designers? 💛

Anouk Foundation recently had the pleasure of joining Dr Nina Edwards Anker’s senior studio class at Parsons School of Design in New York to share our work and experience with the students.

Together, we explored how art and design can contribute to wellbeing in healthcare and social-care environments, and why involving the people who live, work and receive care in these spaces is such an important part of creating them.

It was a wonderful opportunity to bring our field experience into the classroom, exchange ideas and hear the students’ questions and perspectives.

Thank you to Dr Nina Edwards Anker and the students at Parsons School of Design for the invitation and such an inspiring exchange. We hope this is the beginning of more conversations between Anouk Foundation and the next generation of artists and designers. 🌱

Why does nature have such a powerful effect on how we feel? 🌿

A France Inter article, “Sciences : comment la nature nous fait-elle du bien ?”, explores research presented by INSERM neuroscientist Michel Le Van Quyen on the positive effects of nature on the brain and our well-being, including how simply looking at images of nature can have a calming effect.

This strongly resonates with our experience at Anouk Foundation. Across hospitals, care homes and other healthcare environments, nature is one of the themes most frequently requested for our murals - for children and adults alike.

Landscapes, forests, plants, animals or the sea can bring a sense of the outside world into spaces where access to it may be limited.

Through our murals, we aim to bring some of that feeling indoors: creating moments of calm, escape and connection through art. 🌱

Reference: France Inter, “Sciences : comment la nature nous fait-elle du bien ?”, featuring Michel Le Van Quyen, INSERM.

Sikkens Center

May 20 was World Bee Day 🐝✨
A small occasion to celebrate one of the most important little creatures on our planet, and at the Anouk Foundation, also one of our most loved characters. ✨🐝

She appears in our murals in children’s hospitals, bringing gentle, playful moments into spaces that need lightness the most.

Sometimes she is flying through imaginary gardens, sometimes resting among flowers, sometimes becoming part of a story that makes children smile.

But beyond being a friendly character, she also carries a deeper meaning.

Bees are essential to life on Earth. They are responsible for pollinating nearly 90% of wild flowering plants and 75% of our food crops. Yet today, their extinction rate is dramatically increasing.

Through this tiny figure, we connect imagination with reality. 🌿

A soft presence on the wall, but also a quiet reminder of how fragile and interconnected life is. Because even the smallest beings can hold an entire world. ✨